On The Internet, Everyone Knows You're Stupider Than A Dog

Then, in what seems to be an elaborate ruse, the Twitter user claiming to be Nikki Reid and then a woman claiming to be her mother contacted Tommy Christopher, a correspondent for Mediaite, the media blog. After first communicating online, Mr. Christopher said, the woman dismissed claims of incriminating evidence against Mr. Weiner and accused members of the #bornfreecrew of harassing her daughter and her daughter’s friend. The woman also made a statement, which offered a forceful defense of Mr. Weiner.

She repeated this by phone to Mr. Christopher, who insisted the woman provide documentation confirming her identity. The woman faxed over a copy of a California driver’s license with her name, Patricia Reid, at a Los Angeles address, as well as school identification for the girls. But it turns out that the driver’s license and the school identification were fake, according to California state officials and school district officials.

What a jughead!

Tom Tom needs to spend less time protecting imaginary teens and more time in remedial journalism class. Yes, this is kind of quality journalism that Dan Abrams puts out.

Update: Tom Tom's defense: "'Without concrete proof, though,' Christopher says, 'we had to proceed under the assumption that these people were who they said they were, and that compromising their identities represented a significant risk of harm.'"

We had to protect the fake identities of nonexistent people we identified in the first place, even though there was no reason for our fake story, even if it was true. Fucking funniest thing I've read this year.